Signaling Transitions in Academic Writing

This corpus lesson is designed to familiarize students of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) with a wide range of transition words. Using the Corpus of Contemporary American English, students distinguish transition words by finding differences in meaning, grammaticality, and sentence position. The inductive inquiry focus of this lesson can heighten student interest in the lexical nuances and grammatical behavior of these highly frequent words, better equipping students to use transitions effectively in their own writing

Motivating Student Reading Through Post-Reading Book Creation

The Intensive English Program (IEP) high-beginners looked proud for the first time since they had started the course months earlier, their e-books projected dazzlingly on the wall of the classroom. The adult-education class turned into a sea of raised hands and smiling faces, each learner eager to stand in front of the class and read the unique, colorful paper book they had created. The preschoolers clamored to read another story so they could draw a new ending to that one as well. What do these three groups of learners have in common? They are all excited to read more because they have been reading with a purpose: to create a new book based on the text they had just read and share their creation with their peers

Nations united through discourse: a corpus analysis of UN general assembly addresses

The overarching goal of this dissertation is to investigate the linguistic features of United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) General Debate addresses delivered in English during 2015. In order to describe UNGA addresses with the greatest accuracy, breadth, and depth, the study explores typical linguistic features across texts as well as variation within the register. Thus, the dissertation also examines the geographic, political, economic, and social profile of the countries represented in the UNGA in order to identify any country-related characteristics associated with systematic linguistic variation. The dissertation uses two corpus-informed methodologies: register analysis and Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS), with a secondary goal of discerning the ways in which methodology affects the nature of findings. The study is based on a corpus of all 92 UNGA addresses delivered in English during the General Debate in 2015. In the examination of linguistic features across UNGA addresses, the UN texts are contrasted with the British National Corpus as well as four comparable registers: prepared speeches, spontaneous speeches, official documents, and conversation. The analysis begins with a description of situational characteristics for the UNGA and the four comparison registers. Then keywords and Multi-Dimensional scores for the five principal dimensions found in Biber (1988) reveal the lexical and grammatical features that characterize the UNGA. The second part of the investigation looks at variation among UNGA addresses, with texts divided into groups based on country-specific characteristics such as region and Gross Domestic Product. Keyword analysis, key feature analysis, and Multi-Dimensional analysis are used to identify systematic variation of linguistic features based on country group. The final analysis is a CADS study of three frequent and politically salient terms (terrorism, Security Council, and women) with keyword and collocational analyses to determine how the terms are conceptualized generally in the UNGA and also whether any variation can be identified for country groups. Results show a remarkable consistency across the UNGA not only in what lexical and grammatical features are preferred and dispreferred but also in how they are used. Lexical features reveal the importance of topic, purpose, and discourse structure. Grammatical features are greatly influenced by written-to-be-spoken production circumstances and purpose. In spite of the large number of features (126) and country groups (31) explored, very few exhibit any systematic patterns of variation. The variation that does occur is primarily associated with level of development and region. The CADS analysis supports the register analysis, showing that UNGA texts tend to conceptualize politically charged terms in similar ways with only occasional variation based on country group. These findings have important implications for the field of political discourse analysis, furthering our understanding of the linguistic features of international organization spoken discourse. In addition, the CADS analysis demonstrates some important methodological considerations, with consequences for the design of future corpus-informed research

Exploring Terms in English for Specific Purposes

Students of English for specific purposes (ESP) require technical vocabulary with which instructors may not be entirely familiar. Moreover, ESP textbooks tend to present the most frequent technical vocabulary across specializations (e.g. the most common dictionary definitions for dimension and argument rather than their specific meanings in Mathematics, Psychology, or Law) and rarely address the lexical needs of specific fields (e.g. actuator in Mechanical Engineering and free on board in Business). This lesson helps teachers use AntConc to locate essential vocabulary from one or more documents and offers several ways for students to learn how to use the words through authentic materials

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 1 - Executive Summary

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2s^-1. This report is the Executive Summary (Volume I) of the four volume Reference Design Report. It gives an overview of the physics at the ILC, the accelerator design and value estimate, the detector concepts, and the next steps towards project realization.The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2s^-1. This report is the Executive Summary (Volume I) of the four volume Reference Design Report. It gives an overview of the physics at the ILC, the accelerator design and value estimate, the detector concepts, and the next steps towards project realization

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 4 - Detectors

This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics.This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 3 - Accelerator

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2 s^-1. The complex includes a polarized electron source, an undulator-based positron source, two 6.7 km circumference damping rings, two-stage bunch compressors, two 11 km long main linacs and a 4.5 km long beam delivery system. This report is Volume III (Accelerator) of the four volume Reference Design Report, which describes the design and cost of the ILC.The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2 s^-1. The complex includes a polarized electron source, an undulator-based positron source, two 6.7 km circumference damping rings, two-stage bunch compressors, two 11 km long main linacs and a 4.5 km long beam delivery system. This report is Volume III (Accelerator) of the four volume Reference Design Report, which describes the design and cost of the ILC